


A Relm Between Worlds

by MateriaFlower1_1



Category: Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy VI
Genre: Aftermath, Childhood, Family, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-04-25 09:40:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14376105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MateriaFlower1_1/pseuds/MateriaFlower1_1
Summary: Sometime after the final battle, when peace reigns again, Relm becomes curious about her name and decides to ask Shadow about it and where it came from.





	A Relm Between Worlds

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Here's just a cute little one shot detailing the background of Relm and her backstory with Shadow and her mum.

_"_ Shadow?"

Shadow turned from facing the ball of fire in the sky to look at his recently reunited with his firecracker of a daughter. They were sitting together under the dozing Thamasan sun; Shadow wearing his usual deepest black attire (which Relm insisted was a stupid colour for camouflage), and Relm was clad in her usual assortment of ferociously bright scarves and other gossamer soft shawls. They were an odd pair, seated atop emerald grass on the crest of a hill. Both looked down across the broad, grassy field, dotted with pine trees and sliding off into thick forests - one side petering out into a bustling hamlet. Both saw something different. Shadow looked away from the far-off voices of the closing marketplace, to the beach that tumbled out of the red earth and disappeared into the ocean. Usually bright azure, it was dyed a crimson red, lapping at the sand like the nip of a puppy on its owner's finger. To him, he marvelled at how untouched it was. An unbelievable section of the world that was unspoiled by the past, not being despoiled for the future.

To Relm, the world was a canvas, ready to be drawn, improved upon, taken into a future where all they could do was better this world. Nature was infinite but never innovative; humanity was finite, but there was always innovation dormant in the minds of all. Every second her mind seemed to be whirring, wondering what she might create next, what she might do to make this world better. To cover up the past that she dreaded to think of.

Everything around Shadow seemed so pure, so untouched, and he felt out of place. As though he had no business being in a new world, a world where everyone had a second chance. He was past second chances now, skimming like a cat through his nine lives until he was left with but a shadow of one. Relm thought that she could build a new life for herself, for Strago, for her friends. For Shadow.

Shadow watched Interceptor sprint around, probably searching for an enemy to kill, before looking into Relm's green and brown swirled eyes - so much like _hers_ \- showing his attention to her call. Relm was so much like her mother - her hair, her eyes; she even smelt like paint!

"Why did you call me Relm? Did you look in a dictionary instead of a baby's name book?"

Shadow resisted a snort at her question. Always witty, just like her mother.

Shadow opened his mouth behind the ever-present inky black mask (Relm often wondered if he got suffocated by the recycled air) but found he had to pause to answer. Relm, quick to catch on as always, raised an eyebrow and smirked, as though she knew she was right. She almost was – they never did look in any books.

* * *

_It was the day Relm had been born. Clyde had been expecting a boy, a boy they'd call Adam, so a girl was a surprise. The old man had gone off somewhere - Clyde didn't really care where - and Ruby was sound asleep at the fading of the day. Ruby had wanted a colourful name like hers originally, suggesting 'Jasper' or 'Ash', but Clyde just couldn't get his head around such earthy, whispy names. They'd met halfway in the end, choosing a name that was common in Clyde's hometown, and one that Ruby insisted also meant 'red'._

_So when a girl arrived, he was in complete shock. What would he - an ex-thief and one with blood on his hands at that - really be able to do to support a precious baby girl? How could he be a role model to a beautiful little girl who would be oh-so-much like her mother? With a boy he would've been fine, he could've taught him all the noble things in life that Clyde never knew and all the right ways to live that Clyde never felt. But a girl... Ruby would have to teach him for years before he understood it. But first - a name. He liked Ruby, but that, of course, was because of his love for the lady in question. How many women did he know anyway? There was Eve, his mother; Grace, his sister; Lucy, his dead grandmother… But they were all gone now. It would raise too many questions anyway; he could not let a sniff of his heritage pass his lips. And the few women who had been before Ruby… he didn't want to utter their names again._

_A paintbrush laden with orange paint dropped off a nearby table, snapping Clyde out of his name induced revere._

_Painting. His life had been opened up by the worlds that had been swept across her once blank canvases. The colours and texture fascinated him, although he was a terrible artist himself. It was like the careful skill and still hand produced another world in his brain. With each measured flick of her delicate wrist, she created a new realm in his mind._

_Relm. It was perfect, the thing that had brought them together - this realm, Thamasa; the thing that had made then fall in love - the realm she created in his mind; and the proof of their devotion - Relm. With the beginnings of strawberry blonde hair atop her tiny, chubby face. Currently sleeping soundly, Clyde couldn't see her eyes, but he remembered them being a beautiful brown in the centre with the lime green colour of his own eyes ringing the outside. She would be a beauty, just like her mother._

_Was he even needed?_

* * *

"So you named me after the way you two fell in love? Nice." Relm smiled approvingly as her young eyes that had seen far too much softened. "Almost classy, and more than an inch of feeling. You need to keep up that track record." She moved closer to Shadow, and Shadow, being himself, did not know what to do. Tentatively, he placed an arm around her small shoulders and felt his heart warm up. He had only been in her life for four years now, and two of those years were spent travelling the world in imminent peril as strangers. As soon as Shadow had come back from 'the dead', he made a beeline for a not too happy Relm; after spending their journey together, he could never, ever leave her alone. Even if he had had to accept that old fool Strago. Looking back, it had been so worth the not-so-feeble attempts at beating him and all the many curses she had spewed out. Shadow didn't even know some of them existed.

"Hey, at least I was never confused with anyone else! No one has the name Relm." She chirped whilst taking out a small notepad and the ever-present pencil from behind her ear as she got to work on sketching Interceptor, who was bounding like the wind around the open pastures.

Shadow laughed internally, a harsh, uneasy cackle, but he knew Relm felt the vibrations as she proceeded to tease him mercilessly for it. Shadow couldn't help but smile under the black fabric covering his face. Maybe one day he could reveal his face. But not today.

His thoughts turned to his late love, becoming Clyde once more, if only for a moment. He thought about her long, softly curling pomegranate-ruby hair, so smooth and soft he could run his hands through it all day. Her eyes, a beautiful chocolate brown and so warm, so kind. Freckles angelically dusted her smooth, porcelain, skin with not a mark on it. She wasn't tall, in fact, she was reasonably short, but it only added to her cuteness in his opinion, and never detracted from her beauty. Her face was the same, but round and full of youthful life, only reaching the tender age of twenty-one before...

_I've never forgotten you, Ruby. Can you forgive me? Can you forgive me for being so selfish and leaving our daughter? But I've returned now. I've come back to our daughter. Our Relm._

 


End file.
